It’s Not Who You Know…Or Is It?

Recently, WIRED
magazine’s editor-in-chief, Chris Anderson, lashed out andpublished a list of 100 PR “offenders” who have
repeatedly filled his email inbox with what he termed “gunk”
mail messages. The question is…was it justified? Having been
in this industry 15 years, we’d have to say yes…and no.

Indeed there are many
agencies that operate on the premise of quantity versus quality…the
more reporters who see your release, the better your chances of
securing coverage. We all know how
frustrating spam is; imagine receiving 300+ spam emails each day!
That’s exactly what an off-target news release is to a reporter.

Now for the flip side.
It's not always easy to develop a super targeted list of reporters. It
takes a lot of research–and that takes time. Agencies spend
thousands of dollars a year on database systems to help develop
targeted media lists, but even those aren’t 100% accurate. Developing
a great list takes time-consuming legwork and often clients don't want
to pay for this–in dollars OR time.

So what's the
lesson? When we talk to new clients we tell them: we have to do the
foundation work before the other work can begin. This includes
messaging, planning, goal setting, material prep, and yes, list
creation.